The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Renson Ingonga, has withdrawn a murder case against 15 elite security officers, citing insufficient evidence to sustain a prosecution.
The decision was formalised before the High Court in Kiambu through the filing of a notice of nolle prosequi, a legal procedure that allows the DPP to discontinue criminal proceedings.
The officers affected include 13 officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) who were previously attached to the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU), one officer from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and one Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warden.
The case was linked to the July 2022 disappearance of two Indian nationals, Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, along with their Kenyan taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania Mwange. The trio went missing under circumstances that triggered investigations into possible abduction and murder.
The prosecution decision follows a series of complex legal developments, including earlier High Court directions in Kiambu and Kahawa Law Courts that addressed duplication and consolidation issues in related abduction charges.
According to the DPP, a review of the primary investigation files concluded that the available evidence did not meet the legal threshold required for a murder conviction beyond reasonable doubt.
The withdrawal effectively ends the murder proceedings against the officers, though it remains part of a broader legal and investigative history surrounding the 2022 disappearances and the conduct of elite security units.
Source Attributed:The Standard